Character Genesis
Hey there ladies and gentlemen, your friendly fellow rper Pach here. I was busy being bored (oxymoron yum) for some time when I came up with the idea for this, a Character Genesis page. Basically this page is devoted to the behind the scenes stuff like the inspirations and ideas for your character's creations. I'm interested to see what motivated people to create their characters in the way they did, and also what you guys think makes for an interesting character, too! (and hey, maybe if this gets good feedback we could get a page behind the inspirations and reason why people write some of the scenes they have? We've had some real classic story scenes so far, y'know XD) Why did you name your character the way you did? Why do they look that way? Why those abilities or weapon? Why that personality? What about their themesong, beyond just liking the song and band? What were your guys' inspirations behind your, frankly AMAZING cast of characters? I wanna know! ;O; Pachamac/Ash I rarely ever tend to repeat characters from one rp to another. I normally create brand new characters from scratch so I can better build them for the story and it's world. I also normally go for characters whom are weaker and who have disabilities as it therefore makes their eventual victory against the overwhelmingly powerful foe that much more satisfying, but this time I decided to make both of my starter characters have relatively overpowered abilities so as to challenge my writing by not running away with it. Naturally I'm not going to have my characters godmod and oneshot kill everything in sight but the potential's definitely there to do so. I could have Kenneth make everyone he sees believe he's the Second Coming or something, but I won't, haha. [[Kenneth Lay|'Kenneth Lay']] First off, major thanks and props to Kate for creating an rp with such a compelling plot and idea. In a lot of other rps I usually have to struggle to create a starting character but not with this one. Even though I made it a joke in the first post, I WAS actually tempted to make Kenneth's sin be that of a door to door salesman. Afterall, no one likes them, right? I eventually decided on making his sin be that of driving someone to suicide because I thought it'd make for a nice change compared to a lot of the other characters whose sins seemed to be derived from that of murdering others. I thought it might make him seem pretty sinister at first, being that tactile and cruel he could actually drive someone to kill themselves whilst seemingly being uncaring enough about it to do so. On the flipside, he's most certainly not a murderer himself, at least not directly, so he's an interesting conundrum. His past, when its eventually shown, will be guaranteed to be pretty tragic, I promise you. I decided to make him a conman because hey, it was a story about villains and sinners, and every good story like that definitely needs a conman, right? He was partially inspired by Sawyer from Lost in the sense that, although he's a conman and not a nice guy, he's got more depth than that and is far more than he normally appears. He's got a hidden, softer side, and he's willing to help others, even if its a small few. Although, in all honesty, he was supposed to just be a selfserving jackass to begin with, but he evolved to be so much more thanks to interaction with Xell and Mordie, so much kudos and thanks for that, Kate and K. Xell having a past history with Kenneth has helped my future plans a lot and his developing romance with Mordie has helped solidify his character A LOT. I've also never rped a ladies man type character before, so this proved an interesting opportunity. He's also developed to be a pretty deep thinker, thinking about the big picture mainly because I was surprised to find no one else already do so with their characters (bar Wren, but his motives are far more selfish and sinister). Kenneth's a conman player, so he's got his mind on the game, so he similarly knows Julien would be doing so too... and that its not gonna end the way Julien promises. Powers wise his belief ability came naturally. A conman's main purpose is to get their targets to believe them, so belief powers were the first thing to come to mind. And again, it served as a nice challenge for my writing to not run away with it in godmod possibilities, and it always provides an endless sea of ideas for me. You've seen him turn invisible, pretend to be other people, pretend objects are other things, pretend that some people can hear him, or that there's more of him, or that he himself believes he can succeed. I've still got far, far more ideas for him in that respect... he's a fun character to write XD Appearance wise I didn't give much thought to him. He's a ladies man conman, so a suit seemed like the most natural fit. His species is a fox because ladiesmen type characters are usually foxy, and foxes have this stigma of being two-faced devious animals. So for Kenneth to not really be so was a nice subversion of the trope, which I'm all over when it comes to my characters! No major reason why his weapon is a short knife. He's supposed to be a support fighter really, aiding others from a distance so he wasn't supposed to get upfront and involved in battles, but I think the knife was a good pick as no other characters at that time had been using one, so helps differentiate him a bit from the others at the start. Athena being introduced as a knife user later though makes for a really good contrast though, especially as I'm sure their fighting styles are very different, and it should be interesting if they ever fight off against one another. Kenneth's name was based on a trip to wikipedia and looking up the names of infamous conmen. His name was based on the conman of the same name, who was apparently an american businessman who built the energy company Enron, but I've done no research on him beyond that at all. I just thought it was a pretty cool name. (I can't really picture our BR Kenneth being a corporation CEO, but hey, anything's possible! He's sure to have led a colourful past...) His theme song was chosen partly because its a decent song that resembles Kenneth and partly because it was the opening theme song for the Sopranos, the amazing drama series based on a mob family, which fits Kenneth to a tee. Didn't have to think hard about it at all. 'Nathan Winters' Nathan was inspired from the movie Memento, in which the main character suffers from the same condition of anterograde amnesia, and loses new memories. I thought it was a really original, inspired idea... so naturally I had to steal it! In the movie the main character records his important notes using tattoos on his body and takes polaroid camera shots of important people and writes small notes of them on top of, but I thought that I shouldn't plagarise things the whole way and opt for a mobile phone instead to record people's pictures and notes. Partially because it's so much easier and relevant to do so now, and secondly because Nathan wouldn't exactly have the opportunity to tattoo himself in the Trials now, would he? XD I didn't really have any plans for Nathan's personality. At first I wanted him to be weak and rather timid, a coward in contrast to the others, but that changed as soon as I settled on what I wanted his powers to be. I ripped off the marvel comics character Taskmaster's ability of photographic reflexes in which he copies every single fighting move and ability he sees, and then thought a character who had that as an ability would probably not be so much a coward as one who reacted based on his instincts (seriously, go back. He's a wuss against Flint in their first encounter, despite quite easily being able to defeat him, getting hit even though he should dodge it. I'll try to rectify that oocness somehow... otherwise now he becomes this timid character who relies on his instincts a lot, which sounds strange?) Nathan's also very protective of people in front of him, particularly women, for no other reason that I genuinely am in real life. Nathan's weapon was chosen only because of the association with Lani and Glitch's fighting style in using swords. I don't tend to like copying other people's weapon choices since I'm all over diversity but then it makes sense for his character, and I actually chose his weapon to be a medium counter balance between Glitch's lighter sword and Lani's heavier, in the hopes that that alleviates the copying a little. He's pretty flexible with any type of weapon really though, which he'll have to be now that he's lost the sword. Trying to think of a new unique weapon for him though, that'll maybe change per circle. Appearance wise I chose a salamander for Nathan because I like to be different so I avoided the usual hedgehog/echidna type dealies, not that I have anything against them, I'm just all for more variety, y'know? Although him being a salamander hasn't impacted his personality or appearance in any way (particularly because I like to imagine the characters as all human, anyway), it's just there as a piece of miscellaneous info, although it did help him to grip against the cliff wall when he fell off it in circle 1. I'm... pretty sure that's a salamandar trait to be able to climb along walls? Idk, lol. Clothing wise there's no major thought behind his dress sense either beyond the fact that I like to wear jeans and hoodies too, lol. Hoodies help to shroud his facial features and make him more mysterious too. As for his sin I didn't have any idea what it was going to be beyond something that occured after the incident in which he lost his memories. But after the fantastic introduction of S.E.O by Kate and a small trivia piece from her for one of her characters I've got Nathan's backstory and sin pretty much fully solidified. And that's what I love about rps so much as well, being able to expand my characters through inputs from other's, not just for my character's actions but their backstory and personality too. Nathan's first name was based on one of my favourite videogame characters,Nathan Drake from the superb Uncharted games. His surname Winters didn't come until much, much, muuuuch later when I decided it was finally time he had one, and it was partially inspired from Julien's surname of Summerfield. The Summer automatically reminded me of Nathan Summers, another marvel comic's character, so I went with the flipside opposite and came out with Winters. And it sounds pretty sweet too, imo. |D [[Jack the Ripper|'Jack the Ripper']] Jack's naturally based on the infamous Ripper of legend. I came up with the idea of him mainly because I wanted to introduce a villain to the proceedings too (we'd had a bit of a lack of villains by this point beyond typical rhino minions), and I thought it'd be a particularly interesting idea to do so based on a living individual, and who's more infamous a serial killer than Jack the Ripper? Just the name alone gives out a lot of information and made it clearer to express my ideas with him, although I'll definitely be playing around with your expectations. He's also one of the more funner characters of mine to write since his actions and speech are so exaggerated and dynamic. He's easy and humourous to write for, at least in my opinion. Everything in regards to Jack has come very naturally to write for, really. Appearance is obvious. Victorian garb for the Victorian gentleman. That classy, british feel of a tophat and monocle. His weapon choice revolves around his cane mainly because every classy british gent should carry around a cane, wot wot! His two faced personality came easily, not so much from the fables but because I think it'd be interesting to mix the typical Victorian gentleman along with this absolute monster of a serial killer, who we'll see very soon in the rp. We've seen one face, not the other yet so far... partly inspired by Sander Cohen from Bioshock in the 'killing being an artform'. The bullethole scaring to his forehead was inspired by Vamp from Metal Gear Solid, and I wanted to open up the mystery of why he has both that and the rope strangulation marks around his neck. Did he die that way or some other method entirely...? He's a barrel of sinister mysteries. I was actually worried about his introduction at first especially since I didn't run it past Kate at first, and iirc she asked that all villain ideas be runned passed her first? I was worried he might seem out of place but I was so excited by the ideas, hence the rather rushed introduction, but his interaction with Julien and Athena in the wager and so soon in his appearance marked for a fun dynamic and it was great to see their thoughts and reflections on the Trial Runners in their doppelganger battles. Kate absolutely NAILED him in her first post of him. That made me pretty dang happy and confident with him, so I rolled with it. I didn't intend him to have any kind of scientific/magical intelligence at first either, until James introduced the concept of him being one of the contributive creators to the Scry Network and that's opened up a lot of possibilities for him too, which is fun, fantastic stuff. He might have been dead for a long long long time... plenty of time to make him learn and be acquainted with a number of things, right? His Sigil connection was created entirely by the fact that I absolutely hate to leave characters behind. Granted I can understand its not always easy or possible for writers and creators to stay on in an rp, but I hate to look at the rp as a story as a whole and just see these fantastic characters be there one minute and then be dropped with no explanation the next minute. It's a shame. So for the sake of the narrative I decided to keep Sigil in by relating him to Jack via a mysterious transformation and the sinister notion that Jack had been watching the trial runners the whole time from right by their side. But other than that I had zero ideas where to go with it. Since then, however, Sigil's become an absolutely integral part of Jack's character, even if it doesn't look like it so far. I'm laying hints along the way, but don't be mistaken, Sigil most definitely IS still in the story and his connection to Jack will prove to be very, very important. Major kudos for Ramza for creating him. Admittedly I haven't consulted him on any of the ideas he might have had for Sigil or what I'm using him for, but I suspect he's got no intention of rejoining, so what's the harm, right? Credit to him for the creation of an intriquing character though and for the ideas he's helped to give me. I'm also planning on seeing what I can do to help bring back Rubycored's character Niume and Scar back, somehow, again for the same reason of never leaving a man behind. Scar's a lot easier, Niume not so much, but I'll figure something out... I'm sure. >>;; Oh, and can't forget about Flint too. He's like the only rhino guard who survived. Shame if he managed to make it through the whole rp without getting his just deserts from a certain salamander, eh...? 'Bentleee' Julien Summerfield I actually first drew Julien around 2009. After watching ‘Vampire Knight’, I decided I needed a vampire character. After having drawn him (sitting about with a massive scythe), I described him as a vampire hedgehog who enjoyed reaping souls and liked stripy shirts. I decided being a reaper didn’t really suit him. Nor did I think he had quite the eccentric personality (quite like O’shea anyway at all). I thought he was beyond being the clichéd creature of a hedgehog. In all honesty I wouldn’t even say he was a defined animal so I just describe him as beast. Though when I think about the way I describe the small behaviours eg lowering ears in a predatory type manner, flared eyes e.t.c sometimes I do think him as a bit panther-like. All in all however, the best way to describe him is a vampiric beast or devil. They do say, however, that a picture is worth 1000 words. The ambition to flesh out his character continued to play on my mind despite extra-curricular commitments. I first rolled him in as an evil character in Crimson Darkewolfe’s roleplay Zodiac. He appeared once in a scene and was Athena’s stalker (Athena being my main OC in the RP). His character was taunting and that of a bully. He seemed to make an impression pretty rapidly as I had two other people pming me asking more about him. Or at least what to be wary of. Unfortunately the RP lost momentum due to time constraints and commitments partaking players had. I certainly was in my final year of Dentistry and had ‘finals on the brain’. Julien made another appearance in ‘Forest of the Future’ which is round about when I started roleplaying with stronger commitment this time. Once again, he resumed the role of an overpowered evil villain. Namely the director of the Synthetic Eden Organisation who was revealed to have sinister powers and had the corporate’s members under his thumb. Ironically, Seipher O’shea and Zacharias Maynard were actually in servitude to Julien and the relation was functional and loyal. The entity was not the main antagonist but something to be wary of, had the RP been maintained. Unfortunately it was not meant to be in spite of the fact I had bundles of fun writing for it. I finally decided to have Julien as the main antagonist in the roleplay Black Rainbows. I already had a good idea for his personality. Some of his personality is inspired by Alucard from Hellsing. This is in the sense that Alucard enjoys taunting and belittling his opponents, even to go far as taking damage, before rejuvenating to finally attack and kill them. The facet I took from Alucard was that unvarying evil smile and the notion to laugh at difficulties as if they are absolutely hilarious. This personality thus constitutes Julien in significant ways. Bar the fact that Julien is evil and has no respect for anyone or anything apart from himself. In comparison to Alucard’s derisive mocking towards his foes (or victims better still), Julien is so overwhelmed in power that he prefers to attack individuals with words and knowledge of their dark pasts, omens and auguries to watch them mentally suffer to the point where their too paralysed to come near him. As of yet, his tactics on that front alone have proved to have left deep mental wounds upon his victims. Rather than being a typical overpowered villain with a clichéd goal to ‘rule all’, I thought it’d be more interesting to already have him ‘rule all’. So bored with his power, I thought it’d be interesting to create someone who derived his pleasure from watching people suffer. Through trials and ‘mind games’. This is in spite of the fact he’s taking risks in the venture, such as having Wren partake in the trial who already tried to kill him once and who he suspects is indeed ‘up to something’. I’ve mentioned the word ‘Psychiatrist’ quite a lot and I thought it’d be interesting to have him as an expert on body language, behaviour and emotions. As if he wasn’t overpowered enough I suppose. However, some psychiatrists or other people we trust in modern society are in fact rather criminal individuals in themselves. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to explore more on the ‘Psychiatrist’ front. When and where he was one, and who was under his influence. Speaking of influences, Julien also often talks of ‘deals’ he has made with people. Almost like hell’s contracts. So far in the RP, we’ve seen that of being blood exchange (vampire bites), soul selling, brainwashing, occult, and later on I hope to expand on other forms of deals. As overpowered as Julien is, there is a way to defeat him. And he has certain limitations. I may write about them now and again in the RP but it is up to the people reading to remember the details. Certainly I shalln’t be giving them away any time soon. Nor will I re-iterate any weaknesses. If they're missed, forgotten or misunderstood it's tough luck I'm afraid. 'Rexcalibur' I've a cast of over 60 characters, all from multiple novels and projects, some of which are unfinished, others are still in the process of being fully thought through, and still others not even touched. I've no major novels completed as of yet, and I've been working on the same project since 2006, titled "Dancing Fate", where most of my favourite OCs come from (including Glitch, Frostbite, and Laura). Sadly, this particular project has undergone far too many restarts and hiatuses to count. I don't see it being completed any time soon LOL. However, thanks to BR, I'm able to flesh out and further develop the said three characters above (as well as Mordie and Baltimore), so when their arrival is marked in DF, they'll be much better, more characterised persons than before. Thanks Kate, for this lovely opportunity. (; 'Glitch (Judas Disember Ihana)' Glitch is my very second character to be created (my first being Gazelle), back in 2003. He was originally created as a white Sonic "lookalike" from a different dimension (my excuse for a direct recolour) named December Ihana, mostly influenced by the remix of Linkin Park (orz)'s "My December" from their Reanimation album. Four years later, I finally changed his name to something more badass; Glitch. Of course, seeing as Glitch isn't a natural name, I'm using it as his alias; his real full name being Judas Disember Ihana. (That way, I could sill keep his original name somehow, ohoho.) I created December sometime after playing through bits of SA1, but before I've even heard of SA2. He was created as a moody, broody, angsty individual - much like Shadow. When I found out about Shadow, I was pretty discontented, but I kept December anyway, thinking he's much more hardcore and angstier than Shadow LOL. As a Sonic character, December/Glitch had a major crush on Amy and disliked Sonic for always sapping her attention from him. Go figure. He was an antagonist-swapped-to-protagonist, on Eggman's side at first as Eggie promised to revive his sister with the 7 Chaos Emeralds (a lie, of course); all December had to do was bring them to him. Meaning he was a pretty gullible/desperate character as well. Now, he's a much different, more original character; a general smartass/jackass to everyone, skeptical, sarcastic, potty-mouthed, short-tempered, impatient, and aloof to the needs of others - unless it's family. Glitch's girlfriend (older version)/wife (currently) is a white female cat character named Chestnut that belongs to my best friend since 2006. Almost immediately after she created Chestnut, we made the two romantically involved. Because Chestnut doesn't belong to me, I haven't used her in BR or any other project as of yet, nor do I plan on it. For his past (in both BR and DF), Chestnut died the same way his mother did - by childbirth. The cannibal thing was an on-the-spot thing I came up with during one of my BR ICs. As much as I regret just letting him outright admitting the fact to everyone (it's out of his character too; he doesn't trust any of them - why would he give out more information about himself? lololol) and could've saved it for later to scare everyone lol, I've got to say, it's a nice and creepy addition to his character. I've yet to make use of it in DF, which is of a "fanta-horror" genre, so I try to make things as ridiculously creepy as possible LOL, and Glitch's new quirk will be a nice add. Around August 2012, his weapon preference for my personal projects has changed to a machete and magnum (of which he hand-carves the bullets for). But for consistency's sake, I'm sticking with his original 'crescent blade' preference in BR. 'Frostbite' Frostbite was created shortly after Glitch ("December" back then), an aura that inhabits his mind and drives him insane. Unlike Glitch, Frosty never underwent any major changes, aside from changing from ice- to shadow-elemental (as you can tell, his name was connected with ice, so-- so-- lolol), and becoming a cannibal. He's always been the same - a psychotic, spiritual being that took over Glitch's nine-year-old mind during a fight between him and his sister, killed her, and then remained with Glitch, only to come out when Glitch is driven to an extreme emotion. 'Laura Aiko Ihana' She caaaame to meeee in a dreaaaaam. ♪ I was dreaming about some scene from another project "A Shadow No More", before I changed up the character list and yadda yadda, and Jillian charged in with a chainsaw. I woke up the next day and was like, OKAY, SHE'S IN. Changed her name to Laura because 1) in BR, it sounds way too similar to Julien and bugs me far too much lol, and 2) it sounds too much like my other OC Will. orz 'Mordie Alyssa Locklear' JUST LIKE JILL, MORDIE ACTUALLY CAME IN A DREAM TOO. I love my dreams, they can be so detailed! 'Precious Marianne Baltimore' I didn't name Balti after my hamster - I named my hamster after her. LOL More to come later when I cba. C: 'Valentine Vilencio' Valentine was inspired by five things: Emilie Autumn, Kanon Wakeshima, DJ Taka's song "V", a creepy haunted violin from Neopets, and my avatar on Gaia (design). The first four were obvious ideas all attributed to Valentine's ability to play a haunted violin that summons shadow spirits to do her bidding. Emilie and Wakeshima are both ridiculously talented in playing the violin and cello (respectively), and subsequently inspired me to create a character that could do the same. Seeing a gif of a haunted violin on the site Neopets.com inspired me to give her violin some magic ability - summoning shadow demons. With the song "V" came along her (archaic lol) nickname as well as the idea of how the movements of these demons were controlled by the tempo of Valentine's song (e.g. if she's interrupted or stops, the shadows all instantaneously die/collapse into themselves). 'Nocturne' wordswordswords 'LadyFoxFire' wordswordswords 'Violet Whirlwind' wordswordswords 'Shylarah' wordswordswords 'Gemajinn' wordswordswords And there you have it, folks! Feel free to add your inspirations behind your characters, too, or not. Whatever appeals to you guys XD